h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

These new fangled low energy light bulbs are supposed to last 12 years. No one could argue with this at first as they hadn't been around for 12 years to prove the case. Whenever I have mentioned it to anyone else the general consensus is that I must be a witch as lightbulbs do survive 12 years outside of my home. So I have decided to keep a log of how long mine last, and I have used well known brands of light bulbs.

Living Room = Dec 2009
Bedroom = Dec 2009
Lamp = July 2008
Boxroom = Dec 2009
Kitchen = May 2008
Bathroom = Nov 2005
Hall = Apr 2009

Kitchen bulb went this morning. So May 2008 to November 2011 is only two and a half years not twelve.

Living room was swapped out for a real bulb last winter 2010 when I acquired one. Real bulbs are now illegal in the UK and you can't buy them from shops.

Living room bulb went this morning so a new low energy bulb starts again Dec 2011

Mine don't last very long .More like a few months than a few years.

It's unlikely that you'll get anything like twelve years of use. Most of the good makes will have an estimated number of hours, typically 6000, printed on the packaging. If you use a lamp for, say, 4 hours a day it'll last around 4 years.

What makes are you using?

Many CFL's are not recommended for 'base-up' installation because the heat from the lamp destroys the internal ballast. If you are using these versions on ceiling mounts then you'll see a significant redution in service life.

I've got Philips. Supposed to last 10 years.

Hi again. The bulbs are in ceiling fittings. They are dim tonight. The christmas lights in the town are on now. and the house lights always seem to be poor at this time of year. I think the christmas lights take the power.

I've got Philips bulbs all over the house. I've never installed any other version. They were all fitted at the same time; we'd only just moved here and our first electricity bill was horrendous, so I changed all the existing lighting for CFL's.

That was five years ago and I've never changed one yet.

However, all the ones that are fitted to pendants from the ceiling now give out far less light than those fitted to table lamps. It may be time to change those soon.

Interesting to hear what you say about poor lighting when the town is fully lit, Pamela. I've heard that these bulbs can suffer premature failure if the supply voltage is lower than the rated voltage. How does the electricity supply reach your house? Is it via overhead cable (ie on poles) or underground? Are you rural?

The electricity is on poles. It's a valley town. Population was around 19,000 a few years ago. Every winter the light are dimmer in the evenings ,but brighten up a lot after around 11-0 -clock. so I guess it's linked to the people turning things off when they go to bed.

Poor Pamela. The low energy bulbs are dim enough as it is so if they go dimmer in the evenings - just when you need them - that is unfortunate.

Mine are currently all Phillips bulbs and say 10 years on the packets. They are the single light bulb hanging down from the ceiling type of light fittings apart from one table lamp. A number of hours makes much more sense doesn't it and there is probably some small print saying 10 years based on one hour a day or something. I also used Osram bulbs before but similar results.

I often wondered why the most wattage they make is 20w which is supposed to be 100w equivalent but people complain it is too dim, I know it is not just me. So why not make 30w and it would still be less than 100w electricity used.

Thanks for your comments. It is helpful to know things like the fact that they don't last as long in ceiling hanging fittings. If you know that presumably the makers and the government propaganda people do too, but they never mention it.

You are right about the small print. the philips box says 10 Years based on 10,000 hours . I didn't do the maths but I also have an Osram bulb and that says 10.000 hours=10 years at 2.7 h/day.